Section 4 Summary

Ayah finds her husband drunk, shuffling down the road. She realizes that he is old and that his mind is slipping: sometimes he forgets who she is, or where he is. Sometimes he thinks he is still supposed to be working at the white man's ranch.

As they walk toward home, Ayah and her husband stop to rest. They huddle together among the black rocks of Navajo country, wrapped in Jimmie's blanket. Ayah gazes up into the night sky and remembers the old ways as her husband falls asleep beside her. It is very cold and she realizes that he would not feel anything if he were to stay asleep in the cold. She remembers an old Indian lullaby that her grandmother sang to her mother and her mother sang to her. Though Ayah cannot remember singing it to her children, she sings...